Summary:
The episode opens up with Raul watching Daedalus through a security camera and we find out that he’s been stripped of his position as Chief of Public Health. Raul muses over how Daedalus have lost his two reasons to live, namely Monad Proxy and Real. After that we see a quick scene of a dark figure (quite obviously Real) standing in a graveyard before we’re once again back with Raul. This time he’s in the council chamber getting a nasty lecture, including an accusation of how he might have been involved in Real’s death.

Raul is furious of this and proceeds to smash a mirror with his bare hand after the meeting. As he is on his way back his office there’s a sudden failure of power and he decides to visit the powerplant to talk to the technicians. Once there he finds out that this is not the first failure and in fact there has been several over the last three weeks. Raul immediately suspect it is Daedalus doing and pays him a visit under cover of having his hurt hand examined.

After talking casually for a while Daedalus asks Raul if he’s not satisfied with taking away his one treasure and his power and is there to eliminate him as well. Raul counters with how he was forced to remove Daedalus from his posititon because he hid the other proxy from the council using Monad. Raul accuses Daedalus from keeping another secret from them, that Real is in fact alive.

Right on cue the scene changes to Real standing in the middle in some kind of rural community. Iggy is with her and she tells him how there are no people at all in the town. All there is are robots doing menial work. Back to Raul and Daedalus, the former compliments Daedalus on managing to fool the council to think Real is dead when she in fact is in the outside world. He proceeds giving a theory of how Daedalus can’t protect Real now that she’s outside the dome and that’s why he sent a message to Raul. Daedalus retorts that he won’t join forces with Raul because of the assassination attempt on Real. Raul echoes his accusation in a ironic tone and Daedalus seems to come to a shocking realization.

Raul is obviously unsettling Daedalus when he confirms that it was the council that was behind the assassination of Real. Apparently even the governors granddaughter gets punished for sedition. Raul finally manages to press the reason for the blackouts from Daedalus; he is trying to regenerate Monad Proxy. Meanwhile meets a mysterious young girl and they talk about Real meeting “him” which can only be Vincent judging from the flashbacks. The girl tells Real she might just be terrified with what she finds and asks if she still wants to see it. Real answers that he holds the truth and the girl seems content with that.

Back in Romdeau Raul states that he only wants to save the world and Daedalus gives a sarcastic remark which triggers Raul’s temperament. He gets aggressive with Daedalus, scaring him witless before leaving him with the corpse of Monad. Once alone Daedalus whispers “Welcome home” and how Raul doesn’t know his true goals. Soon after we see what Daedalus has been researching: A way to kill proxies which he has solidified in the form of bullets. Apparently he gave two of these bullets to Real before she left Romdeau. In the ending scenes we see Real and Iggy leave the rural dome and curiously enough the robots inside seems to malfunction once they do.

Thoughts:
That certainly was a good episode and it really renewed my enthusiasm about the show! Luckily no Proxy on Proxy action either, diminishing my fears of a Proxy of the week setup. The animation seemed better as well, especially when compared to the horrid last couple of episodes. There was a few points I was a bit disappointed in though. Even though it probably came as no surprise to anyone that Real is still alive I still think they shouldn’t have shown her in the beginning of the episode. It would have been a bit more dramatic if we saw her first after Raul’s proclamation. There was just no way to mistake the figure standing in the graveyard for anyone else other than Real.

Another thing that disappointed me was Daedalus seemingly spineless reaction when Raul got physical with him. Looks like Daedalus are all bark and no bite, but I guess it could all have been acted out to make Raul less suspicious of him. I’m also starting to worry about his mental health after the way he hugged and talked to the glasscase containing Monad. I just had the feeling he was starting to lose it. Interestingly enough it could be interpreted as if Daedalus thinks/knows Monad is actually Real. It was brought up in a comment at Sea Slugs by Wyk72 and I’m willing to give it alot more credit after this scene. I mean it is obvious that Real and Monad are two separate entities at the moment but something is obviously up!

While Daedalus lost a couple of points in this episode Raul certainly took a few steps forward. Even though he might be considered the antagonist in Ergo Proxy I still like his character. I think he has a very good balance between failures and successes. This episode especially showed how he might have the brains to plot but is restricted in all kinds of way by his position.

I think the scene with the little girl was a representation of Real’s subconscious. When they added the makeup they were just making it obvious that it was a young version of Real and I think the scene represented her fears for the future and her confrontation of those fears. I am not quite sure what her intentions are once she finds Vincent though. First she says he holds the truth but in the end of the episode she looks at her proxy killing bullets and says “All that’s left is to fire the first shot.”. So what will she do? Shoot him if she doesn’t like what she finds out? Pretty coldblooded if that’s so, but should be interesting either way.

Comedy high point of the episode was when I realized that Iggy almost has the same eyemakeup as Real although it is purple. Can’t believe it took me ten episodes to spot it. Isn’t it adorable though, how the big bad android wants to be like his master!

Posted by Matte on Sunday, June 4th, 2006 at 9:24 pm.